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The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson.

Photos
& Highlights From Day 3 (Tuesday) at T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Miami 2010 With Award Winners, Don King and the Live
Domain Auction

The third
day of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami 2010 conferenceat
the Loews Hotel on South Beach
Tuesday (Oct. 19) kicked off with the annual T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Awards brunch. Awards were presented in
seven categories and two new members were also
inducted into the T.R.A.F.F.I.C Hall of Fame
- Monte
Cahn and Rick
Latona.

The
award winners included the .CO
Registry that was voted Sponsor
of the Year after a very successful
re-launch of their TLD.

After the
awards ceremony, legendary boxing promoter
Don King addressed attendees as a
special guest speaker. King was a
controversial choice as some questioned
his relevance to a domain industry
audience as well as incidents in his past
that led to time in jail. King said those
years of incarceration in what he called
the University of the Penitentiary
prompted him to educate himself (he is a
voracious reader) and change his direction
in life.

The insight
he could provide domainers most clearly
came during the question and answer
session that followed his talk. Rick
Schwartz asked King what he would do if he
owned domain traffic but received only a miniscule
share of the proceeds from selling
that traffic via upstream
"partners" Google and Yahoo.

King
said he had run into almost exactly the
same situation in his business career. He
said that he essentially
"made" the HBO and Showtime
cable networks with his exceptionally
popular boxing cards, however he was paid
a pittance compared to the profits he
generated for those companies. He said the
answer was to find a way around them,
perhaps by creating your own distribution
channels to sell traffic directly to
advertisers. He said he is planning to do
something similar with a new People's
Network to distribute his shows and
promotions. The kickoff could come with a
live event (details of which have not yet
been released) that he said will be held
in Miami December 17th.

King
said domain owners are currently like
"tenant farmers" who
produce the crops but get a meager share
of the profits from their landlords.
"The boss decides what your cut will
be," King said. He encouraged
domainers to educate themselves so
they can create new avenues from which to
sell their product.

However
you may feel about King personally he is
an entertaining speaker who can still draw
a crowd. After his speech many audience
members crowded around him to take
pictures and get autographs.

Boxing
promoter Don King draws a crowd
after his talk at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami
Tuesday.

Three
afternoon seminars followed King's talk. Michael
Berkens, Owen Frager, Michael
Gilmour, Jean-Pierre Khoueri and
Rick Schwartz discussed the The
Anatomy of a Type-In - what
surfers are looking are thinking when they
type in an address. Next Monte Cahn,
Larry Fischer, Ari Goldberger,
Neil Kavanaugh, Kevin Leto, Kathy
Nielsen and Rob Sequin offered
advice on Prospecting for End Users.
The final session covered Domain
Security issues and featured Mike
Robertson, Jeffrey Eckhaus, Divyank
Turakhia, Donny Simonton, Dr.
Chris Hartnett, Albert Angel, Michael
Berkens and Gregg McNair. I'll
have more on those sessions, including
photos, in our upcoming show review
article.

The
business day closed with a live domain
auction conducted by Rick Latona
Auctions that produced close to
$500,000 in total sales. The largest
sales were Shock.com ($200,000), BVI.com
+ BVI.co ($110,000), Idle.com
($20,000), MZH.com + MZH.co
($15,000) and Coches.co ($15,000). (Update
10/26/10: Rick Latona announced
that the winning bidder for Shock.com and
BVI.com did not pay so those names were
put back up for sale. Deadbeat bidders are
the reason why we never list a domain as
having been sold on our weekly
or Year-To-Date
sales charts until the domain has been
both paid for and transferred
to the new owner).

After
the auction, NameMedia hosted a
very nice outdoor cocktail reception at
the Loews Hotel that ran from 7-10pm. The
weather was perfect and the company just
as good, making the three hours fly by as
if they were minutes. No need to turn in
just yet though. As the NameMedia event
was closing new Domainer of the Year award
winner Gregg McNair was opening up his
suite at the Loews for a party (open to
all attendees) that was still in full
swing when I left to write this post.

T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Miami 2010 will conclude Wednesday morning
with a T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Advisory Board
meeting and an Epik.com
SwapFest. Immediately after
those events end I will be jumping in the
car and making the five-hour drive back to
our home base across the Sunshine State
in Tampa.I'll have closing
day photos and highlights from
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami fo you in this column
Thursday.

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